The present invention relates generally to photobooth self-actuated photography and, more particularly to a user-actuated modular photography system for use in a photobooth or other enclosure or area to provide user self-photography with realistic user-selective user image previewing, as well as video self-recording by the user.
It previously has been known to provide previewing prior to photographic exposure. Indeed, the concept dates back at least to the 1931 U.S. Pat. No. 1,830,770 to Simjian disclosing a photobooth equipped with a pose-reflecting mirror for permitted a user to view the user's image before user self-actuated photographic exposure.
Various schemes for coupling video cameras to photographic cameras have also been proposed for allowing a video camera to be used for video imaging and display of a photographic subject. In Bonatsos U.S. Pat. No. 3,398,664, a combined television and photographic coin-operated machine was proposed which included a vertical wall facing the user in which are located apertures for a video camera aimed toward the user and a video monitor for allowing the user to see his or her image, the user being presented with an outward jutting control console with a switch enabling tilting up or down of the camera during a delay period at the end of which a negative image formed on the video monitor is exposed automatically to photographic paper to produce a positive photoprint of the video-derived image, but without the benefit direct photographic exposure.
A prior art commercial photography arrangement known by the service or trademark designation VIDEO VISION has provided direct photographic exposure for high quality portraiture with video previewing before exposure. Therein, a camera assembly having a common mount for both video and photographic cameras is selectively aimed by an operator to provide previewing imaging of a subject, followed by selective single or multiple exposure of the subject in a variety of operator-controlled formats manually selected by the operator with tilt-and-pan drive for the camera assembly being controlled by cable remote means by the operator as the photographic subject is posed by the operator for such exposures.
It has been proposed to employ the latter prior art devices for use in a photobooth of specialized construction including a common end wall with openings therein configured for video and photographic cameras, a video display device, and various controls, including a remote control, and lighting at the end wall so that a user seated, as on a bench at the opposite end of the photobooth, may both be in the normal camera field as well have provided usable displays for previewing and control indication. Thayer U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,959,670; 4,896,175; and 4,804,983 represent such dedicated photobooth technology of the prior art.
Among the problems of such a dedicated photobooth is that the photobooth is unfortunately of specialized construction, being in effect hybridized to conform to, enclose, protect and present the video and photographic apparatuses, lighting and attendant controls. Further, such a dedicated photobooth hybrid is necessarily one in which form too rigidly follows function, even though it would often be much more desirable to permit a free form booth construction of possibly variable dimensions and accommodations suited to different possible commercial sites and space availabilities, which may be highly variable. So also, such specialized photobooths as proposed provide objectionable site installation difficulties, as for example requiring considerable pre-installation and elaborate site wiring before site installation and further attendant logistical problems during installation and in the event, as may be expected, of site relocation. Such proposed specialized photobooth types also require for their configuration, installation and set-up the services of highly skilled engineering or technical personnel, or else a high degree of factory pre-assembly and testing, whereas it would be rather more desirable to be able to utilize personnel of less specialized, routine skill level and to permit facile, rapid installation by such less-skilled personnel as by only simply connecting modules. A disadvantage also of such specialized, dedicated photobooth integral constructions is that they do not permit self-actuated video previewed photography except within the rigid confines of the specialized, integral booth per se.
Prior art video previewing photobooth-photography devices as described have in any event provided less than desirable video image previewing because of indirect video capture of an image to be previewed with consequent loss of intensity and serious degradation of video resolution, and so a resultant inability of the user to preview the image with desired detailing. Another previewing limitation typical of such devices is that the video image may be reversed across a vertical axis by optical constraints so that the subject is compelled to preview his/her image reversed as if looking merely into a mirror rather than being able to see a true image during previewing corresponding to that which will be taken during subsequent photographic exposure. In either event, the user is denied high-quality, realistic image previewing.